From his youth, Paolo Castorini, a Sicilian baron, is as attracted to women as they to him. Giovanna, a servant girl, Lillian, a serious girlfriend in Rome, a hostess at a post-war party, Paolo makes love to them all. He also feels dissatisfied with a life only of the body, compared to his journalist friend Vincenzo and his own father, a sober and serious thinker. When his father is on his deathbed, Paolo learns of syphilis in the family and something of the curse of dissolution. Some years later, he resolves to marry Katrina, the pure daughter of the woman he should have married. He wants her purity to redeem him so he can make something of his life. But is it too late?
A doctor running a health clinic by the sea is convinced that women are the cause of the disturbed behaviour of his (male) patients. We get to follow the adventures of the patients during a day on the beach.
Professor Fabius has found a way of transferring his personality to another person and he transfers his to the body of Giacinto Floria, a nice teacher in a women's college. Poor Giacinto becomes a sex maniac to the puzzlement of his girlfriend Mafalda.
Marietto is a very lively and creative orphaned child, housed in a boarding school of nuns. One day, while browsing a newspaper, he sees a photo of a beautiful opera house dancer, Camilla, and is convinced that she is her mother.